Stawar: The power of tourism marketing

This time of year people across the country and the world are making plans for summer travel, and it is essential that Illinois destinations and attractions, like those here in Alton, remain top of mind.

While the power of tourism to fuel state and local economies has been well documented, its economic benefits can never be realized without an effective tourism marketing strategy. Like any business, marketing is a critical way to ensure Alton stands out among the competition and continues to attract new visitors. In Illinois, we’ve learned from experience that without the fiscal resources needed to support a marketing strategy, the tourism industry takes a direct hit.

Through the years, Alton has become known as the eagle watching headquarters of the Midwest. The numbers are just about complete for 2017, but our success in marketing and programming this past season has contributed more than $2 million in tourism expenditures for our region. And, without tourism promotion funds, these numbers would have been much smaller and quite honestly may never have existed without the years of our CVB promoting this natural wonder.

A couple years back on the state level, Illinois leisure travel was up 3.1 percent during the first six months of 2015, when the state of Illinois was proactively marketing itself as a travel destination. Unfortunately, funding for those efforts were cut off by the second half of the year and, by the end of 2015, leisure travel was only up by 1.3 percent. When you consider the more than 111 million annual visitors to our state, even a percentage point drop equates to a significant loss in visitors and, as a result, a significant loss in tourism-generated revenue.

Hotel tax revenue also saw a decline during that time, experiencing only a 2.6 percent growth in 2016 — Illinois’ lowest growth in years. The majority of that growth came during the last few months of the year, when we were once again able to ramp up marketing efforts. By that point, we had our work cut out for us, as we were well behind the national hotel tax revenue growth rate of 4.8 percent. We are turning that corner and could experience double digit growth in our region for 2017 if the current trends continue.

Luckily, Illinois destinations, events and attractions are uniquely positioned to meet a growing demand for dynamic and immersive travel. People want to visit places where they can experience something new and return with a story to tell. Research shows that 78 percent of millennials today are looking to learn new things while traveling, and Alton’s deep rooted history, cultural festivals and culinary and craft beer scene offer visitors plenty of opportunities to do just that. We have the advantage in today’s travel marketplace, and now we have the support in place to communicate that message.

Last year, the Illinois Office of Tourism began seeding an all new “Up For Amazing” campaign message. The strategy was to create a call to action that encourages people to be travelers, not tourists, and to use vacations in Illinois as a means of creating stories and memories. The message really resonates with today’s millennial travelers, and helps Illinois stand out to domestic and international audiences.

Tourism marketing is a worthwhile investment. In Illinois, the travel industry has created jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the state’s employers for more than a decade. Tourism also saves the average Illinois household $1,300 in taxes each year. Thanks to the new “Up For Amazing” ads and re-vamped marketing efforts, we can expect to see those numbers grow, but we need to do our part to ensure Alton is reaping the economic rewards of state travel.